Hearthstone Producer Yong Woo Talks Observer Mode And More

At Gamescom 2014 I had the chance to sit down and talk some Hearthstone shop with producer Yong Woo. The first question of course - What’s coming next? Woo says a full-fledged expansion (not an Adventure) is in the works, but couldn’t go into any details. The top item on the list that you can probably expect soon? Observer Mode.

“One of our most requested features is a spectator or observer mode. We want to make tournaments easier to stream. We want to capture that ‘over the shoulder’ feeling when you’re watching friends play. There’s a hunger for more social elements and we want to explore social experiences through this mode, offer that to your friends,” says Woo. “You’ll come online, see a friend playing, and be able to watch. It’s in active development right now, and while we don’t have an ETA just yet, it’s coming along.”

If you remember, Naxxramas gold cards were originally going to be unlocked by completing the Heroic modes. So why did Blizzard move the Naxxramas gold cards off Heroic and make them only obtainable via crafting and dust? “It was really important to make Heroic mode completely optional. We let the designers go all out with that mode. People want golden cards, so we didn’t want to gate it and possibly frustrate players”

Is Blizzard looking at co-op play as a possibility for Hearthstone? You bet. “Yeah. I mean we have a list of things we want to do with Hearthstone and we think they are all awesome. Co-op is one of them. I think a double-headed dragon could be really cool.”